Lockdown forced everyone to re-think the way they use their homes. One key impact for most of us, was having to combine our home and work life under one roof. Living and working in the same space can create anxiety and distractions. The NHS have issued great guidance on how to work from home effectively - click here for more details.
For the majority of us who don't have the luxury of a designated office, many of us will have had to improvise a "home office" - beds have become desks, bathrooms may be used as conference rooms and so on.
In yesterday's government briefing, the Prime Minister's advice was for the UK workforce to continue to work from home unless it is impossible to do so. This position is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Large companies such as Square and Twitter are allowing their employees the ability to work from home “permanently”. Surveys are also indicating that people prefer to work from home - a recent survey has indicated that the majority of US workers want to continue working from home. Learn more here.
There's therefore two reasons to make sure your home office works:
this will allow you to be more productive as we move into the "new norm" from 4 July 2020
this will be something that potential buyers are likely to consider very favourably
What you can do
If you don't have the luxury of a designated office space, now is the time to find or create one. Here's some ways to do that:
1. If you have a spare bedroom turn it into an office/flex space. Consider removing the bed, replacing this with a day bed (which you can use for any stay over guests) and install a desk.
2. Do you have an outdoor room with power that you can turn into an office? Many of us will have converted sheds into offices during this period - you can too.
3. Is there a quiet corner somewhere in the home eg. an area of the landing, in a dormer window, under the stairs where you can create an office space? If so, consider built in shelving for more storage and which can also be used as a desk when needed.
There's some inspirational ideas including space saving solutions from Architectural Digest here.
In a future blog, we're going to get behind the scenes on how to create a home office in a small space.
How we can help
At sort style and stage, we're expert at maximising the use of space, so if you would like our help with creating a new office space, please reach out to info@sortstyleandstage.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
